Oscar Wilde believed that youth was wasted on the young, but today’s youth don’t have time for that dead poet’s musings on society. They’re far too busy with their own earnest intentions and ideals. The Millennials are in town and the way they think, act, and conduct business, the challenges they face and the things they value will all have an eventual impact on your practice.
Every generation has its ‘thing’. The GI Generation conquered the Depression and Nazi aggression. The Boomers shook it up with the Beatles and ABBA. Gen X suffered along with Kurt Cobain and Douglas Coupland. And now the Millennials are taking their turn, with Kanye and Instagram.
Currently ranging between the ages of 20 to 35, the Millennial generation is taking their place in the workforce, business, and society. And that means that no matter what generation you are from, you’re going to have to work with them either as a fellow lawyer, a client, or a competitor. So what makes Millennials tick? And what makes them different? Here’s a brief understanding from a lawyering perspective.
Millennials Are Always-On
With the eldest born in 1980 and the youngest just after Al Gore invented the Internet, this generation has grown up with so much technology and so much online connectivity. They’re addicted to their smartphones. They love social media, memes, and online streaming. Try having dinner with a Millennial some time. You might have to text them from the other side of the table to get their attention. This “always-on” mentality also translates into how they work: on tablets, in the cloud, and on smartphones. They don’t do landlines and fewer of them are doing desktops. In fact, a 2013 Comscore study found that 18% of Millennials are exclusively using mobile devices to access online media (far more than any other generation) and only 16% are using desktops exclusively (much less than other generations) to do the same.
Millennials Eschew Tradition
There is a bit of an oxymoron here. While Millennials have an affinity for nostalgia and vintage, frankly, they’re far more interested in what’s happening now. And what’s to come. They also want the successful career. But they equally crave a successful life. Spending all their time in the office is not their modus operandi. Yet they do want to do something they are proud of and that fits with their personal goals and passions. A gold watch and a pension isn’t the end goal. And a three piece suit isn’t the uniform of choice. Although a sleeve tattoo and a selfie are part of the game. So too is the idea of working remotely, and outside of normal office hours.
A major global study of the generation by Deloitte found that 7 in 10 are likely to reject the career offerings of the traditional business model, preferring instead to use digital technology to work independently. The same study also found that nearly 8 in 10 Millennials are influenced by how innovative a company is when deciding if they want to work there. They clearly value new approaches to work.
Millennials Are Positive
For a generation that came of age in a post-9/11 world filled with conflict and war, only to graduate into an economic collapse offering fewer job opportunities, Millennials are surprisingly positive about their role in society. They are charitable and keen to participate in the greater community: 63% donate to charities, 43% are active in community/volunteer roles, and 52% have signed petitions. Yes, there are some big scary monsters under the bed, but Millennials believe that collaboration, innovation, community-involvement, and technology will allow us to address those concerns head-on.
Millennials Have it Worse than You
They have low paying jobs (if any at all out of school), huge student debt, slower economic growth, and they cannot afford the big house and the luxury sedan that their parents own. How depressing. Especially for today’s law students. In an NALP study released in June 2014 covering US law school graduates from the previous year, the overall employment rate fell for the sixth year in a row, to 84.5%. By comparison, the Class of 1999 reported 90% employment a year after receiving their parchments.
Millennials Have it Better than You
This generation has been both been highly adaptive to change and highly adept at making change, especially in the realm of technology. In fact, many of the most successful startups were founded by Millennials (give or take a few years). This energy and adaptability is making them more productive, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of businesses and people. They’re taking their business into the cloud, they’re exceedingly mobile, and they’re highly efficient and responsive to the changes and needs of their employers, colleagues, and clients. All things today’s lawyers should strive to be.
Certainly, experience has its place, but if you’re not able to keep up with the technology and the fast paced energy of this generation, there are going to be significant risks.
The truth is that Millennials own the future. And they’re taking it now.
Originally posted by Tim Travis on the Clio Blog | July 24, 2014
At the time this was posted, it became the most read and shared article on Clio’s blog.
Tim Travis 